Mathematically, Woods will need to either win (and earn 500 points) or finish alone in second place (300 points) to crack the top 125.

Last year, only one player outside the top 125 — Sang-Moon Bae — earned enough points here to move into the playoffs, jumping from No. 126 to No. 120 after his tie for 14th. Nobody did it in 2013.

Now the question is how long Woods will stick around at Sedgefield.

In 10 events this year, Woods missed the cut in four of them and withdrew from another. He missed the cut in the last three majors.

He had three rounds in the 80s. His best finish was a tie for 17th at the Masters, a remarkable effort coming off a two-month break to fix a short game that turned shockingly bad in Phoenix and San Diego. His best week was The Greenbrier Classic. While he tied for 32nd, he finished six shots out of the lead. In the other four events where he made the cut, he was no closer than 10 shots.

At Whistling Straits last week, he said his game building, and that he found a key to his putting Saturday morning "but the damage had already been done."

Now for the first time, he’ll test that putter on the Donald Ross-designed turtleback greens at Sedgefield.